Honey and Clover/Headscratchers

• Why do some professors praise Takemoto's "adolescence", even though he is 22 years old already?
  • It's a translation gaffe. They're praising his youth ("the springtime of life").
    • The professors teach at a college, so they are surrounded by energetic young people every day. Why would they single him out?
• Why is Hagumi the only person who sees Takemoto off at the train station? What happened to the rest of his friends?
  • They're probably working.
    • All of them? A more straightforward explanation is, of course, that a one-on-one goodbye has more dramatic impact.
  • Another problem is that you can't get on the Shinkansen tracks without a ticket. Did Hagumi buy one just to say goodbye?
• I don't mind somewhat childish characters, but was it really necessary to make Hagumi look like she has years to go before puberty? From the promotional art I thought she was some little girl tagging along with the cast, so when I read guys fell in love with her at first sight...
  • I saw her as a symbol for youth, which is what everybody wants to hold on to, but has to say goodbye to eventually.
  • But there are remarks in-universe how she looks physically like a child (Ayu and Takemoto's surprise when they saw her coming of age portrait, they thought it was from when she was 12 or something). So the fact that she actually looks like a child, and have guys falling for her, and a very much older relative in love with her is very much squicky.
    • So you are saying that very young-looking adults should not be allowed to have sex, because it would make their lovers pedophiles? That doesn't make sense.
    • Ooh, a twenty-years old that looks like a SEVEN-years old (Ayu and Takemoto thought her recent picture was from a Shichi-go-san). HOT. Actually, if they never acknowledge that she looks like a seven-years old in-universe then I'm fine with "Hagu as a symbol of pure innocence". As it were it's still disturbing, when you add the fact that she ACTS like a child too. But hey, if people still wanna tap that then YMMV.